Stuart J. Johnston

UPDATED: Microsoft’s bid to upgrade Office Open XML’s (OOXML) status to that of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard is starting to look like a good old fashioned cliffhanger. Microsoft confirmed Thursday that India’s delegation to the ISO process has voted not to change its vote from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’. That is, in the […]

When Microsoft released the final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) for download this week, many observers were expecting that like the earlier service packs for Windows XP, it would turn out to be a debacle for users. So far, however, that does not appear to be happening. Although some users have experienced […]

A leading open source legal advocacy group this week lashed out at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) regarding what it calls uncertainty about the free use of the company’s specifications for its Office application suite file formats. Microsoft, in turn, lashed right back. On Wednesday, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) issued a white paper criticizing Microsoft’s contribution, […]

Microsoft’s cheeks must still be burning from the embarrassing disclosure two weeks ago that some senior executives feared the company’s “Windows Vista Capable” sticker program in late 2006 misled some computer buyers. In a new wave of filings last week, however, the Redmond, Wash.-based software behemoth has gone on the offensive against the suit, challenging […]

Does Windows Vista seem a little sluggish and underpowered? Want to switch to an edition of Windows with a little extra kick to it? No, it’s not Windows XP. Welcome to Windows Vista “workstation” – better known as Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008, which Microsoft officially launched on February 27, has a feature called […]

With the kick off last week of beta testing for Microsoft’s next major browser update, users – developers, at least – will get their first chance to check out its new features. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) released what it calls the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (IE 8) developer preview at the company’s MIX08 conference for […]

Ray Ozzie has taken over the role of head visionary at Microsoft, but those looking for the “vision thing” at the company’s Mix08 developer’s conference in Las Vegas, might have been disappointed. Instead, the opening Mix08 keynotes in Las Vegas today, seemed more a culmination of several technology threads than a revelation of a new […]

Microsoft this week is giving a sneak peek at new Live services and platform development tools it plans to introduce at the company’s MIX08 Web developers conference next week. “We’ve got some cool new applications and APIs we’re unveiling at MIX08,” David Treadwell, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Live Platform Services group, said in a […]

Calling it the most significant launch in the company’s 30-plus-year history, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer officially rolled out the company’s latest — and long-awaited — server products at a gala event in Los Angeles this morning. “Today, we get to launch three of the most significant products in Microsoft’s history,” Ballmer told the crowd gathered […]

One of the most important technologies on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s mind at Wednesday’s launch of the company’s new server products wasn’t really in attendance. In fact, Microsoft is still 180 days from releasing its server virtualization technology — its Hyper-V hypervisor (define). “We’re not the leader in server virtualization,” Ballmer told the audience at […]